Lightning shock for Bath

Almost 1,000 netball fans turned up on Monday night hoping to see a tight and hard fought battle and the two teams didn’t disappoint. The traditional rivalry between Bath and Loughborough was in evidence throughout the game as both teams pushed themselves to the limit in pursuit of a win. Bath, last years Superleague champions, arrived undefeated so far this year. Loughborough took the court knowing that for the first time this season arguably their three strongest players, Liv Murphy, Ama Agbeze and Jade Clarke, could all play for a full sixty minutes. Loughborough are the only team to have beaten Bath in the last two seasons and, with Sky TV filming the game in front of a packed house, it was always going to be close.

Lightning pulled the first surprise of the night by not starting with their experienced goalshooter Alex Astle. Instead Becky James started at GS as Lightning signalled their intention to play a fluid attacking game. The early exchanges saw Lightning take a very early lead only for Bath to edge back in to the game. Uncharacteristically Baths international goalshooter Rachel Dunn missed opportunities to take Bath clear as intense defending from Lightning put Bath under real pressure. Finishing nip and tuck both teams had to settle for 10-10 at the end of the quarter.

In the second quarter Bath made a significant change taking off Dunn and moving another England player, Pam Cookey, to shooter. This changed the pattern of Bath’s attacking play and Lightning took a little time to get used to the new combination. This gave Bath the opportunity to sneak in to a four goal lead but Lightning weren’t going to lose sight of them. Lightning’s mid-court of Clarke, Murphy and O’Neill worked tirelessly to keep their team in touch, turning over Bath ball and driving Lightning down court. The quarter ended with Bath having the slenderest of leads, 22-20.

At half time Lightning changed its attacking line-up with Astle entering the fray and Becky James moving to goal attack. It took Lightning a little time to settle with the new line up and in that time Bath opened up a crucial six goal lead. The rest of the quarter was a hard fought affair with bodies flying all over the court and neither side giving an inch. The crowd noise started to build and Lightning started to try and chip away at the Bath lead. However bath took the quarter by 2 to go in to the final quarter 34-30 ahead.

In the final quarter Lightning lifted their game. With the crowd becoming ever more vocal Bath nerve began to wobble. Slowly the lead was pulled in and Lightning had chances to draw level but couldn’t quite convert. Bath kept edging ahead and Lightning kept fighting. Late in the game Verona Tomlin left the court with cramp and Sarah Penny was pitched in to the Lightning defence with just three minutes remaining. Fortunately Penny picked up the tempo of the game immediately Lightning’s defence remained strong. In to the final minute and Loughborough trailed by two but managed to cut the lead to one on their own centre pass. In the dying seconds they turned over Bath ball and drove to the edge of the attacking circle but a dubious penalty saw possession returned to Bath. The final whistle went and Lightning had lost 42-43.

An epic encounter that thrilled the crowd and will show the best of netball when it is on TV later this week. Lightning were gutted to lose but have shown that they can beat any team in the country on their day. Lightning can now build on a superb performance and move towards the play-offs with real momentum. Having lost to Bath by 11 at the start of the season and now only 1 mid season when we meet in the play-offs Bath will be feeling nervous.